he tells us, 'he stood [3]' firm, that is, in his convictions on the
subjects of learning to which he had bent his mind fifteen years
before. Five years more, however, were still to pass by, before
the anticipation mentioned in the conclusion of the last paragraph
began to receive its fulfillment [4], though we may conclude from
the way in which it was brought about that he was growing all
the time in the estimation of the thinking minds in his native
State.
In the twenty-fourth year of duke Chao, B.C. 518, one of the
principal ministers of Lu, known by the name of Mang Hsi, died.
Seventeen years before, he had painfully felt his ignorance of
ceremonial observances, and had made it his subsequent business
to make himself acquainted with them. On his deathbed, he
addressed his chief officer, saying, 'A knowledge of propriety is
the stem of a man. Without it he has no means of standing firm. I
have heard that there is one K'ung Ch'iu, who is thoroughly versed
in it. He is a descendant of sages, and though the line of his
family was extinguished in Sung, among his ancestors there were
Fu-fu Ho, who resigned the State to his brother, and Chang K'ao-
fu, who was distinguished for his humility. Tsang Heh has
observed that if sage men of intelligent virtue do not attain to
eminence, distinguished men are sure to appear among their
posterity. His words are now to be verified, I think, in K'ung Ch'iu.
After my death, you must

1 This rests on the respectable authority of Tso Ch'iu-ming's
annotations on the Ch'un Ch'iu, but I must consider it apocryphal.
The legend-writers have fashioned a journey to T'an. The
slightest historical intimation becomes a text with them, on
which they enlarge to the glory of the sage. Amiot has reproduced